Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo Book Review

Hey everyone!

Time for my first "active reads" book review of the year and I'm pretty excited. I just finished like 10 min ago.

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Amazon Description: 
The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction―and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she's fighting for.

So this is book three of Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy. My general overview thoughts are very "meh." I felt like there needed to be something more epic to finish the story. This book gets a 3.5/5 stars for me, and the whole series gets 3/5 stars. More detailed review below.

"I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but me" - The Darkling

Characters: Overall, I didn't have any particular feelings for any of the characters. The only two people in this series I actually enjoyed reading were Nikolai and Baghra. Even still, I didn't really care enough, you know?

• Alina - I really wanted to care about her. I did, I wanted to, but I just couldn't. I couldn't really relate to her or anything she was going through. Some of the choices she made, I would never had chosen for myself, so it made it very hard for me to understand what she was going through.
• Mal - Okay, I lied, I did really like Mal in this book. I liked that he finally grew up because Alina wouldn't. One of my fave quotes of his, he is trying to make sure she knows that she isn't alone in the fight.  He says "You move forward, and when you falter, you get up. And when you can't, you let us carry you. You let me carry you." *Swoon* That's a lie. I didn't swoon, more like casual eye roll. But it's a damn good quote and I want someone to say that to me and mean it someday.
• Nikolai - His comedy is what made this book. He says things like "Please tell me you're going to dress like a volcra and jump out a cake" and "When I was ten, my parents hired a clown." as a joke both in really serious situations and I died. Also, he basically told his dad to eff off or else he'd charge him with rape. Not gonna lie, I was proud of my fictional character.
• The Darkling - I have nothing new or insightful to say about him except he was a genocidal piece of crap and he deserved what he got.
• Baghra - I FREAKING LOVE THIS WOMAN! Like, so so much. She was your perfect crotchety old grandma type lady, but she was also a bad-effing-ass. Favorite quote of the whole book is this one: "We say like calls to like, girl. But if the science is small enough then we are all like things. The light lives in the spaces between. It is there in the soil of the mountain, in the rock and in the snow. The Cut is already made." So, it's this scene, where she is giving Alina lessons and she basically asks Alina to break of the top of a freaking mountain. And oh, by the way, do it in front of the entire army and your friends. Just, perfect. I have another favorite but I'll save that for the spoiler-y section.

Plot:

So this book's plot was not what I was hoping for. This book is a good YA book, but I wanted epic Grisha battles, not love squares and whiny women. The end was okay, but I would have liked a better more thought out climax to the story. The plot leading up to the final climax though was very, very good and held my interest pretty tight.

So here comes my spoiler-y section. I tried something new with the click-y stuff and it didn't work so if you have't read Ruin and Rising please skip the section in-between the two ****s!

****SPOILER SECTION****

Alright, so I really loved that Mal was the third amplifier. I can say I definitely didn't see that coming. I did not like that he had to die in order to obtain the power, and I really didn't like that he came back. I'm of the opinion that when a character's death is that important to the story line, they should stay dead. It happened with Garth Nix in Abhorsen and other such books. To me, if it's important for them to die, then the characters have to deal with that subsequent loss. It's too easy to be like "oh yeah, I'll just bring them back later..."

Side note: His tattoo "I am become a blade" makes no grammatical sense and I couldn't even, so I'm going to pretend like it says "I become the blade" or something awesome like that.

Also, can we please talk about Baghra? She is incredible. She was going up against her own son, someone who she protected for decades even though he was an evil, genocidal maniac. And before she starts she says "Know that I love you, know that it wasn't enough." That time I swooned. That is what you call a sacrifice. Bam. Love her.
****END SPOILER SECTION****
Like I said before, just "meh" from me.

Hope you guys have a great week ahead! 

Let me know what you thought of the book and what you're currently reading.

Currently Reading: Truthwitch by Susan Dennard and The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld

Hobey ho!